IN  MEMORIAM 
FLORIAN  CAJOR1 


BY 


WILLIAM  PRESTON  JOHNSTON,  LL.  D 


COLUMBIA,  S.  C. 

AT   THE   PRESBYTERIAN   PUBLISHING    HOUSE. 


AN   ADDRESS 

BEFORE  THE  SOUTH  CAROLINA  COLLEGE  ON  COMMENCEMENT  DAY, 
JUNE   25  TH,    1884, 


BY 


WILLIAM  PRESTON  ^JOHNSTON,  LL.  D., 

PRESIDENT    OF   TULANE   UNIVERSITY. 


COLUMBIA,  S.  C. 

PRINTED  AT   THE   PRESBYTERIAN  PUBLISHING    HOUSE 

1884. 


CAJORI 


Z-B4/ 

Jlo 


ADDRESS. 


Mr.  President.  Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 

and  of  the  Faculty,  and  Felloiv- citizens: 

When  your  kind  invitation  came  to  me  to  make  your  annual 
address,  I  confess  I  felt  the  compliment  very  deeply.  I  regard 
it  as  a  very  signal  honor  to  be  called,  at  this  time,  to  perform 
this  duty.  Yours  is  no  ordinary  history,  and,  in  view  of  what 
your  past  requires  of  you,  it  would  be  impossible  not  to  construe 
this  trust,  for  so  I  regard  it,  as  a  mark  of  great  respect  from  so 
self-respecting  and  thoughtful  a  people.  So  soon,  too,  after  your 
reorganization,  weighty  problems,  requiring  the  nicest  judgment 
for  correct  solution,  are  pressing  upon  you ;  and  it  is  but  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  at  such  time,  no  vain  rhetorical  pageant — 
the  lay  figures  and  wax- works  of  thought — would  suffice ;  but 
that  you  expect  some  solid  contribution  to  the  available  fund  of 
educational  philosophy  or  practical  methods.  All  this  made  your 
request  a  very  flattering  one,  but  it  imposes  a  responsibility  well- 
nigh  appalling  to  a  man  so  occupied  and  so  unambitious  as  my- 
self. 

My  effort  in  life  is,  when  I  speak,  to  say  some  useful  word,  and 
when  I  act  to  do  some  useful  thing.  But,  on  these  public  occa- 
sions, paradox,  so  alluring  to  some  minds  and  so  titillating  to  the 
fancy  of  many,  is  almost  demanded  of  the  speaker,  and  com- 
mon sense  is  too  apt  to  be  regarded  as  mere  common-place. 
Nevertheless,  it  cannot  be  that  judicious  words,  even  without  the 
graces  of  manner  or  diction,  can  ever  come  amiss  to  a  people  so 
thoughtful  (as  I  have  already  said),  as  the  people  of  South  Caro- 
lina; and,  in  speaking  to  you  to-day,  I  know  I  am  addressing  the 
heart  and  brain  of  South  Carolina.  I  will  go  therefore,  I  said,  to 
this  ancient  and  honorable  people  with  the  thoughts  and  ideas  my 
mind  has  shaped  in  regard  to  education,  not  for  their  instruction, 
but  as  suggestive  merely;  and,  with  their  minds  all  wide  awake 
and  intent  on  such  matters,  they  will  sift  out  whatever  is  of  prac- 
tical value  to  them.  I  beg  you,  therefore,  gentlemen,  to  accept 
what  I  have  to  say  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  offered. 


J 


Before  I  enter,  however,  on  the  substance  of  my  remarks,  you 
will  pardon  a  reference  to  one  personal  aspect  of  my  mental  atti- 
tude toward  you,  which  it  is  not  to  be  presumed  was  in  your 
thoughts  when  you  asked  me  to  come,  and  which  will  evince  my 
entire  sympathy  with  you,  and  that  in  South  Carolina  I  am  more 
ready  to  stand  as  a  learner  than  as  a  teacher. 

I  was  born  and  brought  up  in  Kentucky  in  a  Whig  family, 
when  that  gifted  orator  and  leader,  Henry  Clay,  was  the  idol  of 
the  State.  It  was  as  hard  then  to  be  a  Democrat  in  Kentucky 
as  it  was  to  be  a  Whig  in  South  Carolina.  Nevertheless,  from 
the  hour  that  I  first  turned  a  serious  attention  to  political  affairs 
(and  I  was  then  very  young),  and  learned  that  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  had  a  history,  through  which  alone  it  could 
be  understood,  I  gravitated  toward  the  State  Rights  construction  of 
that  instrument.  In  a  word,  I  became  a  States  Rights  Democrat 
of  the  straitest  sect  of  the  Pharisees :  what  was  known  as  a  South 
Carolina  Democrat — a  John  C.  Calhoun  Democrat.  I  think  we 
may  now  take  an  honest  pride  in  our  adhesion  to  this  political  faith ; 
for  if  it  has  been  the  occasion  of  much  misfortune  to  us,  it  has 
been  the  cause  of  greater  glory ;  since  truth  is  nobler  than  power, 
and  virtue  than  success.  However  calamitous  it  has  been  finan- 
cially and  politically,  it  has  been  to  us  intellectually  and  morally 
a  very  sheet  anchor,  holding  fast  to  honest  methods  of  interpre- 
tation from  which  no  gust  of  popular  favor  or  storm  of  passion 
could  drift  us. 

But  I  have  not  forgotten  the  deluge,  and  how  much  it  has 
drowned.  Only  we  may  remember  that  our  ark  is  on  Ararat 
now,  and  the  dove  of  peace,  with  olive  branch  in  beak,  is  on  the 
wing  ;  and  in  the  cloud  the  sevenfold  bow  of  hope  bends  over  us 
all,  as  a  token  of  the  covenant  that  there  shall  be  no  more  a  flood 
to  destroy  the  earth.  Let  me  drop  here,  however,  once  and  for 
all,  political  allusion,  which  I  merely  touched  in  passing,  to  let 
you  know  that  I  am  one  of  the  elect,  and  hence  entitled  to  be 
heard  without  prejudice. 

Our  past  is  past.  We  may  not,  we  cannot,  we  should  not, 
forget  this  past.  Not  here  in  South  Carolina,  certainly.  So  full 
of  inspiration,  so  noble,  pure,  and  patriotic,  so  germinal  in  ex- 


alted  possibilities,  it  were  a  crime  to  forget  it.  I  know  our  duty 
to  history,  and  I  have  tried  in  a  small,  but  faithful,  way,  to  per- 
form my  share  of  the  labor ;  but  we  owe  a  duty  to  the  present 
also.  Ah  !  that  present  is  always,  before  it  can  be  grasped,  a 
past!  To  seize  it,  to  employ  it,  to  make  it  fruitful,  we  must  be- 
hold and  shape  it  in  the  future.  We  speak  of  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  the  genius  of  the  century,  but  each  decade  has  a  character, 
a  dominating  principle,  almost  as  clearly  defined.  In  1860,  we 
were  on  the  volcano;  in  1870,  in  the  abyss.  Out  of  the  depths, 
in  the  day  of  our  trouble,  we  made  our  cry  unto  the  Lord,  who 
was  our  helper  and  deliverer.  In  1880,  the  lava  scars  of  the 
eruption  are  clothed  with  verdure,  and  the  ashes  of  defeat  are 
yielding  the  corn  and  oil  and  wine.  We  must  do  this  decade's 
work.  Let  us  address  ourselves  to  the  task. 

The  first  and  greatest  and  most  important  duty  before  us,  after 
our  daily  bread-winning,  is  the  education  of  our  youth.  It  is  all 
of  this  not  only  for  its  effects  on  future  generations,  but  on  our- 
selves. For  the  moment  a  whole  people  can  rise  to  the  joyful 
conviction  that  it  is  better  to  live  for  others  than  for  themselves, 
at  that  instant  they  have  achieved  the  highest  plane  of  national 
character.  To  sow  that  others  may  reap,  to  plant  that  others 
mav  pluck  the  fruit,  to  build  that  others  may  have  shelter,  to 
endure  toil  and  sacrifices  that  others  may  enjoy  the  reward,  this 
is  a  real  and  a  vital  Christianity,  which  will  lift  up  the  m*n,  or 
community,  or  commonwealth,  or  nation,  which  acts  upon  it,  to 
the  loftiest  heights  of  moral  achievement. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  point  out  our  own  immediate  advan- 
tage, to  ensure  your  cooperation.  Do  good  and  fail  not,  this  is 
a  sufficient  motive.  Happily,  man  and  society  are  so  consti- 
tuted that  motives,  interests,  progress  are  intermingled,  not 
isolated  ;  flowing  like  time,  not  differentiated  like  the  seconds  on 
a  clock  ;  and  hence,  social  life,  like  individual  life,  has  its  con- 
scious personal  identity.  We  cannot  separate  ourselves  from  the 
future  of  the  commonwealth,  if  we  would.  The  man  who  can 
really  utter  in  his  heart  the  sentiment,  "After  us,  the  deluge,"  is  a 
monster.  But,  fortunately,  I  shall  not  be  obliged  to  day  to  argue 
in  favor  of  the  blessings  of  education.  If  I  am  not  misinformed, 


6 


there  is  a  spirit  aroused  in  South  Carolina  which  is  resolved  that 
these  blessings  shall  fill  her  borders,  and  that  all  shall  be  lifted 
up  by  their  amazing  power.  The  friends  of  education  every- 
where, the  believers  in  a  better  time  coming,  have  taken  heart  at 
your  attitude.  The  selection  of  your  present  Governor  is  re- 
garded as  something  more  than  a  compliment  to  the  cause  of 
education.  It  is  more  than  an  augury,  more  than  an  earnest  of 
your  profound  interest  in  the  cause  of  human  enlightenment.  As 
a  noble  representative  of  public  education,  his  call  to  the  highest 
place  in  your  gift  is  justly  considered  a  guaranty  of  your  pur- 
pose to  put  South  Carolina  on  the  highest  plane  of  intellectual 
progress. 

The  question  may  be  regarded  as  settled  that  the  people  of 
this  State  are  to  be  educated.  The  next  practical  question  is, 
how  shall  this  be  done  ?  But  before  attempting  to  decide  it,  we 
will  consider  what  is  meant  by  the  term  education,  and  what  are 
its  objects.  In  its  broadest  sense  education  embraces  every 
formative  influence  which  affects  a  human  being.  Professor  Mas- 
son  says:  "The  business  of  education,  in  its  widest  sense,  is  co- 
extensive with  a  man's  life ;  it  begins  with  the  first  moment  of 
life  and  ends  with  the  last,  and  it  goes  on  in  every  combination  of 
place,  company,  and  circumstance  in  which  a  man  may  volunta- 
rily station  himself,  or  into  which  he  may  be  casually  thrust." 
He  then  points  to  the  school  of  the  family,  and  the  various 
schools  of  the  locality,  of  travel,  of  books,  of  friendship,  all  of 
which  help  to  make  a  man  what  he  is. 

John  Lalor,  in  his  Prize  Essay,  says  of  education  :  "It  is,  in 
its  largest  sense,  a  process  which  extends  from  the  commencement 
to  the  termination  of  existence."  Paley  says  :  "Education,  in 
its  most  extensive  sense,  may  comprehend  every  preparation  that 
is  made  in  our  youth  for  the  sequel  of  our  lives."  This  idea  has 
been  formulated  in  a  hundred  varying  modes  by  as  many  Avriters. 
Richter,  in  his  Levana,  philosophizes  thus:  '"The  spirit  of  the 
nation  and  the  age  decides,  and  is  at  once  the  schoolmaster  and 
the  school ;  for  it  seizes  on  the  pupil  to  form  him  with  two  vigor- 
ous hands  and  powers  :  with  the  living  lesson  of  action,  and  with 
its  unalterable  unity."  The  lesson  of  action  is  through  example. 


The  unalterable  unity  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  nation  is  a 
generalization  to  express  that  tendency  which  is  a  resultant  of 
every  individual  and  social  force  at  work.  Buckle  subse- 
quently demonstrated  that  such  unity  is  a  fact  by  exhibiting  some 
of  its  phenomena  in  his  illustrations  of  the  equilibrium  of 
statistics.  '  , 

This  broad,  I  might  say  universal,  view  of  education  is  men- 
tioned, because,  by  the  most  illogical  reasoning,  all  the  vast  func- 
tions and  compulsory  influence  of  this  world-education  are  popu- 
larly attributed  to  the  work  of  a  school  or  college.  I  am  willing 
neither  to  admit,  nor  to  claim,  so  much  for  the  influence  of  the 
school  desk  or  lecture  room.  These  are  powerful  in  the  sense 
that  they  are  germinal;  but,  in  their  direct  bearings,  how  small 
a  part  they  necessarily  play  in  the  life  of  a  man.  Suppose  a  boy 
to  be  in  school  six  hours  a  day,  five  days  in  the  week,  for  five 
school  years  of,  say,  thirty-two  weeks.  -This  is  equivalent  to  just 
two  hundred  whole  days  of  twenty-four  hours  each.  In  the  first 
twenty-five  years  of  his  life,  if  he  spends  two  hours  a  day  at  his 
meals,  as  he  ought,  the  table  would  claim  just  fourfold  as  much  of 
his  time  as  the  school,  and  it  is  easy  to  multiply  these  illustra- 
tions. Consider  how  small  a  share  school  life  actually  has  in  the 
education  of  the  young.  A  child  is  brought  from  a  home  of 
ignorance,  low  morals,  and  squalor  ;  it  stays  at  school  a  few  ses- 
sions, and,  failing  to  rise  above  its  environment,  after  some  years 
falls  into  the  pauper  or  criminal  class.  Is  it  just  to  hold  the 
school  responsible  for  what  it  has  failed  to  accomplish  in  such  a 
case  ?  You  may  turn  to  the  parable  of  the  Sower,  for  an  answer 
as  to  what  has  become  of  the  good  seed  sown. 

The  influence  of  heredity  and  the  education  of  the  environ- 
ment undoubtedly  have  immeasurably  the  largest  share  in  mould- 
ing our  destinies.  The  direct  instruction  of  teachers,  schools, 
and  books,  is  but  one,  though  not  an  inconsiderable,  factor  of  this 
great  problem.  To  me  it  seems  that  the  inevitable  deduction 
from  this  is  that  the  direct  school  education  should  not  attempt 
to  supersede,  or  ignore,  the  larger  education  of  the  world,  but 
should  be  carried  on  with  direct  reference  to  it,  and  as  a  con- 
stituent part  of  it ;  in  a  word,  that  it  should  be  practical.  It 


8 


must  have  relation  to  the  age,  capacity,  character,  surroundings, 
and  probable  career  of  the  pupil.  It  must  respect  the  law  of 
heredity,  and  the  limitations  of  the  environment,  past,  present, 
and  future.  It  should  not  be  a  forcing  process,  but  a  natural 
growth  ;  not  an  artificial  production,  but  a  normal  evolution. 
According  to  the  Prussian  theory,  "Education  is  the  harmonious 
and  equable  evolution  of  human  character."  And  Stein  says 
this  is  to  be  effected  "by  a  method  based  on  the  nature  of  the 
mind ;  every  power  of  the  soul  to  be  unfolded,  every  crude  prin- 
ciple of  life  stirred  up  and  nourished,  all  one-sided  culture 
avoided,  and  the  impulses  on  which  the  strength  and  worth  of 
man  rest  carefully  attended  to."  To  this  noble  and  philosophical 
ideal  of  an  education,  every  teacher  should  frequently  recur. 

Channing  tells  us :  "The  true  end  of  education  is  to  unfold 
and  direct  aright  our  whole  nature.  Its  office  is  to  call  forth 
power  of  every  kind — power  of  thought,  affection,  will,  and  out- 
ward action ;  power  to  observe,  to  reason,  to  judge,  to  contrive  ; 
power  to  adopt  good  ends  firmly,  and  to  pursue  them  efficiently  ; 
power  to  govern  ourselves  and  to  influence  others  ;  power  to 
gain  and  to  spread  happiness." 

Great  writers  and  thinkers  have  embodied  these  same  ideas  in 
a  multiplicity  of  forms.  They  are  summed  up  in  that  threefold 
training  of  body,  mind,  and  soul,  which  fits  a  man  for  his  station 
in  life,  and  makes  him  a  good  and  useful  man  and  citizen. 

In  this  training  any  possible  school  system  must  have  for  its 
principle  and  direct  duty  the  instruction  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  pupil,  not  because  this  is  the  highest  function  of 
education,  but  because  it  is  the  business  of  the  school.  This, 
properly  directed,  even  without  any  special  physical  and  athletic 
discipline,  and  without  formal  ethical  or  religious  instruction, 
may,  nevertheless,  achieve  notable,  yea,  wonderful,  results  for 
the  health  of  both  body  and  soul,  as  well  as  mind.  It  aids  the 
family  and  the  church  in  forming  character,  by  clearing  the  vis- 
ion and  disciplining  the  faculties  and  will  of  the  student.  If  it 
does  well  the  work  of  disciplining  and  informing  the  mind,  ac- 
cording to  the  means  afforded  it,  it  has  performed  its  part  in  the 
great  business  of  education. 


9 


In  a  narrow  and  practical  sense,  then,  the  business  of  the 
school  in  education  is  to  develop  the  intellectual  faculties,  both 
subjectively  and  objectively,  and  so  to  train  and  discipline  them 
that  they  may  acquire,  retain,  and  effectively  employ  all  neces- 
sary knowledge.  The  school  is  intended  to  confer  knowledge 
and  the  power  to  use  it.  For  knowledge  is  to  the  mind  what  air 
is  to  the  lungs,  at  once  its  motive  power  and  the  material  upon 
which  it  works.  If  this  intellectual  education  is  carried  on  with 
due  reference  to  moral  culture  and  physical  demands,  the  results 
will  be  all  that  the  friend  of  humanity  can  ask  of  it  in  any  sys- 
tem of  social  amelioration.  It  will  effect  that  evolution  of  mind 
and  character  which  produces  the  development  of  the  entire  man, 
and  will  aid  in  that  complete  and  perfect  education  which  is  the 
adjustment  of  the  free  will  of  the  creature  to  the  plan  of  the 
Creator,  and  which  conforms  the  nature  of  man  to  the  divine 
ideal. 

In  the  nature  of  things,  then,  any  true  system  of  education 
must  be  integral,  and  reach  from  the  mother's  knee  to  that  happy 
day  when,  exultant  in  matured  powers,  the  graduate  leaves  the 
university  a  scholar,  a  thinker,  a  worker,  a  man.  All  cannot  en- 
joy the  whole  of  this,  but  happy  he  who  has  the  opportunity, 
talents,  and  will  to  accept  the  full  measure  of  the  blessing. 

If  education  philosophically  viewed  is  a  unit,  elementary,  aca- 
demic, and  university  education  are  but  successive  phases  in  a 
continuous  growth.  In  each  of  them  respect  must  be  had  to  the 
nature  of  the  human  mind,  and  the  laws  which  regulate  its  evolu- 
tion. The  faculties  must  be  trained  in  the  order  of  their  develop- 
ment, and  knowledge  suitable  to  the  age  and  capacity  of  the 
pupil  must  be  imparted.  Knowledge  for  use  and  training  to  use 
that  knowledge  must  be  kept  always  in  view.  The  mind  thus 
educated  by  philosophical  methods  rests  on  solid  rock  ;  otherwise 
it  rests  on  nothing,  and  swings  like  a  rope-ladder,  ready  to  cast 
its  rash  climber  into  the  perilous  pit  below.  The  child  that  comes 
up  from  the  primary  school,  mentally  cramped,  crippled  and 
dwarfed  by  artificial  and  unnatural  methods  of  teaching,  has  the 
same  chance  to  grow  to  the  full  stature  of  intellectual  manhood 
that  the  poor  little  chimney-sweep  of  a  bygone  age  had  to  recover 


10 


from  the  hard  bondage  which  twisted  his  limbs  and  filled  his 
lungs  with  soot.  So,  too,  the  academic  student,  crammed  with 
hog  wash,  stretched  on  a  mental  rack,  and  worked  in  the  dreary 
treadmill  of  an  unmeaning  routine  by  a  stupid  taskmaster ;  how 
can  we  expect  him  at  the  University  to  brace  himself  for  those 
exercises  in  the  free  air  of  liberal  thought  and  independent  re- 
search which  fit  him  to  become  an  athlete  in  the  arena  of  life  ? 
We  cannot  afford  to  make  mistakes  in  the  education  of  our  chil- 
dren, for  they  are  the  mistakes  of  their  lives,  leaving  them 
warped  and  enfeebled,  and  the  mistakes  of  our  own  lives,  involv- 
ing the  failure  of  the  dearest  object  of  our  existence. 

This  is  not  the  occasion  for  me  to  expand  in  detail  the  work  of 
the  teacher  from  the  cradle  to  the  college.  As  indicated,  it 
should  be  at  once  preparation,  and,  so  far  as  it  goes,  completion. 

According  to  a  true  psychology,  the  earliest  season  of  life 
should  be  devoted  to  the  training  of  the  powers  of  observation, 
the  cultivation  of  the  senses,  and  the  accumulation  of  a  vast  mul- 
titude of  facts,  which  at  that  age  the  curiosity  seeks  out  and  the 
memory  treasures.  This  blind  curiosity  should  be  elevated  to  an 
intelligent  love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  and  for  its  uses 
among  men.  The  memory,  too,  should  be  exalted  from  the 
drudge  and  slave  it  is  too  often  made,  feeding  on  husks  and  tend- 
ing swine,  to  the  royal  and  half-divine  dignity  assigned  it  in  the 
beautiful  mythology  of  the  Greeks.  By  some  perversity  of  human 
thought,  a  superficial  modern  pedagogy  would  treat  the  cultivation 
of  the  memory  almost  as  an  intellectual  crime,  holding  up  memory 
as  the  antipode,  the  adversary  even,  of  its  twin  sister,  reason. 
The  daughter  of  Apollo,  and  Mother  of  the  Muses,  is  treated  as  an 
intruder,  alien,  outcast  in  the  realm  of  thought.  This  is  absurd. 
In  every  stage  of  life  it  should  be  carefully  nurtured  and  guarded. 
But,  as  it  is  during  the  plastic  period  of  childhood  that  it  re- 
ceives its  most  vivid  and  enduring  impressions  and  is  most  capa- 
ble of  growth  and  development,  then  must  we  cultivate  its  pow- 
ers most  sedulously. 

This  neglect,  and  even  conscious  degradation,  of  memory  is  a 
vice  in  education  only  equalled  by  a  similar  view  of  the  office  of 
the  imagination.  From  crude  or  ascetic  notions  of  its  function 


11 


it  has  been  treated  as  "a  chartered  libertine"  among  the  intel- 
lectual faculties,  to  be  severely  checked  and  repressed.  Some 
people,  confounding  it  with  the  fancy,  seem  to  regard  it  as  a  sort 
of  ornamental  appendage  to  the  mind,  intended  for  display  merely, 
like  the  spreading  glories  of  a  peacock's  tail,  an  Indian's  Avar 
plumes,  or  a  belle's  stratagem  of  convoluted  and  furbeknved  ball- 
room train.  But  the  imagination  is,  in  fact,  the  imaging  faculty, 
and  hence  necessary  in  scientific  inquiry  as  well  as  in  poetry,  and 
indeed  in  every  intellectual  pursuit.  Scientific  insight  and  poetic 
imagination  are  very  closely  allied,  as  has  been  evinced  in  the 
greatest 'philosophers.  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  as  a  boy,  was  noted 
for  his  fondness  for  the  Arabian  Nights  ;  and  our  own  great  nat- 
ural philospher,  Prof.  Joseph  Henry,  revelled  in  fairy  tales,  of 
which  in  early  youth  he  was  a  maker  as  well  as  a  reader.  As 
no  higher  testimony  is  possible  to  the  value  and  culture  of  the 
imagination,  I  quote  what  Prof.  Henry  himself  says  on  this  sub- 
ject :  "The  cultivation  of  the  imagination  should  be  considered 
an  essential  part  of  a  liberal  education,  and  this  may  be  spread 
over  the  whole  course  of  instruction,  for  like  the  reasoning  facul- 
ties the  imagination  may  continue  to  be  improved  until  late  in 
life." 

With  Davy  and  Henry  the  imagination,  when  turned  from  the 
world  of  ideas  to  the  world  of  fact,  from  subjective  forces  to  na- 
ture, produced  the  most  valuable  practical  results. 

But  the  imagination  like  the  horse,  so  useful  when  obedient  to 
its  master,  may,  when  an  unmanageable  steed,  work  ruin  to  the 
rider.  Every  child  should  be  taught  to  distinguish  its  products 
from  the  truth,  as  not  the  thing  itself,  but  its  representative. 
Nothing  is  easier  than  to  make  a  child  grasp  this  conception,  for 
it  is  founded  in  nature.  The  distinction  is  as  easy  to  the  youth- 
ful mind  as  that  between  a  person  and  his  image  in  a  mirror. 
And  when  once  the  imagination  is  set  to  its  proper  duty  of  rep- 
resentation instead  of  deception,  a  great  step  has  been  taken  in 
that  self-consciousness  which  is  the  foundation  of  philosophy. 
Thereafter  no  casuistry  can  confuse  the  difference  between  a  men- 
tal picture  and  a  lie.  And,  further,  when  the  human  soul  once 
starts  forward  in  the  search  for  truth,  such  is  the  innate  loveli- 


12 

ness  of  this  fundamental  principle  of  life  and  action  that  no 
more  will  the  soul  cease  from  a  constant  striving  toward  it  for 
ever.  With  the  truth  as  our  goal,  our  flight  is  ever  upward. 

Now,  then,  with  the  powers  of  observation  and  memory  trained, 
with  the  imagination  awakened  and  coordinated  with  truth,  and 
with  truth  itself  set  before  the  mind  as  a  final  end,  the  child,  the 
youth,  the  man,  yea  a  very  angel  in  the  choir  of  young-eyed 
cherubim,  would  have  the  foundation  on  which  to  build  an  educa- 
tion for  time  and  eternity. 

Unfortunately,  in  practice,  the  pupil  reaches  the  grade  of 
academic  instruction  on  a  plane  far  lower  than  this  exalted  ideal. 
Too  often,  alas,  he  is  brought  to  the  intelligent  and  sympathetic 
surgery  or  hygiene  of  a  real  teacher,  past  cure,  or  mentally 
and  morally  maimed  by  bad  methods.  In  whatsoever  case  he 
may  come,  such  a  teacher  will  make  it  his  study  to  remedy  the 
defects  of  earlier  training  and  building  upon  it  to  widen  the  posi- 
tive knowledge  nnd  continue  the  previous  development. 

In  any  proper  scheme  of  academic  and  collegiate  instruction, 
the  direct  or  indirect  aim  of  the  master,  still  following  the  order 
of  intellectual  development  and  conforming  to  the  laws  of 
psychology,  must  be  to  train  the  reasoning  faculties,  and  con- 
strain the  mind  to  employ  them  according  to  correct  methods. 

Whatever  may  be  the  studies  adopted,  whether  the  languages, 
mathematics,  or  science,  this  should  be  the  principal  object. 
Other  and  important  ends  are  served  in  studying  the  classics, 
mathematics,  philosophy,  and  scientific  branches,  but  the  best 
ground  on  which  we  can  justify  the  time  devoted  to  collegiate  in- 
struction is  that  it  produces,  not  a  man  full  of  learning,  but  a 
man  who  knows  how  to  think.  In  so  far  as  it  fulfils  this  func- 
tion, it  is  a  success  ;  in  so  far  as  it  falls  short  of  it,  it  is  a  failure. 
Knowledge  comes  with  study  and  intellectual  development,  as 
wealth  conies  with  toil ;  as  stature,  growth,  and  health  with 
physical  exercise.  It  may  be  incidental,  but  it  is  inevitable. 
Those  studies  are  proper  to  be  pursued,  in  due  proportion,  as 
agencies  of  education,  which  permit  no  faculty  to  lie  fallow,  but 
produce  a  thinker  able  to  employ  all  his  powers  most  effectively 
in  their  appointed  work. 


13 

When,  under  intelligent  tutelage  and  guidance,  such  a  one  has 
reached  the  point  where  he  has  acquired  adequate  information 
and  discipline  ta  meet  the  exigencies  of  an  ordinary  business  or 
professional  career,  academic  and  collegiate  instruction  should 
cease.  He  may  then  go  forth  into  the  world,  the  battle  field  of 
life,  to  answer  its  various  demands.  But  if,  as  happens  to  the 
elect,  his  soul  is  set  on  a  higher  culture,  if  he  would  know  and 
be  and  do  the  best  of  which  he  is  capable,  one  step  yet  remains. 
He  must  rise  nearer  to  the  source  of  intellectual  light,  by  eman- 
cipation from  service  to  any  master,  except  the  truth.  The  most 
vigorous  natures  rise  to  this  as  the  eagle  soars  toward  the  empy- 
rean by  its  own  unaided  powers  of  flight.  But  as  even  the  cal- 
low wing  of  the  eaglet  is  aided  by  the  older  bird,  so  the  contact 
of  youthful  genius  with  the  practised  powers  of  strong  thinkers, 
helps  it  in  its  upward  career. 

The  University,  with  its  corps  of  earnest,  elevated,  learned 
men,  pursuing  and  imparting  knowledge  in  the  spirit  of  a  sound 
philosophy,  through  scientific  methods,  is  the  final  field  in  which 
the  young  athlete  tests  his  powers  to  endure  and  achieve.  Here 
education  ceases  to  be  instruction  and  becomes  inspiration.  The 
wise  professor  no  longer  dictates,  he  leads.  He  encourages  a 
prudent  scepticism  which  puts  to  the  test  each  of  his  own  utter- 
ances;  of  every  formula  he  says:  "Try  it  in  the  alembic  of  rea- 
son, whether  it  be  pure  gold  or  sounding  brass."  He  says  :  uBe 
free,  think,  decide,  and  hold  fast  to  the  truth  as  you  yourself 
find  it." 

As  Helmholtz  says  :  "In  Germany  the  Universities  are  unmis- 
takably the  institutions  which  exert  the  most  powerful  attraction 
on  the  taught.  But  it  is  clear  that  this  attraction  depends  on  the 
teacher's  hope  that  he  will  not  only  find  in  the  University  a 
body  of  pupils  enthusiastic  and  accustomed  to  work,  but  such 
also  as  devote  themselves  to  the  formation  of  an  independent  con- 
viction. It  is  only  with  such  students  that  the  intelligence  of 
the  teacher  bears  any  further  fruit." 

Again  the  same  distinguished  scientist,  speaking  of  the  Ger- 
man attitude  toward  free  conviction,  says  :  "An  opinion  which 
was  not  based  upon  independent  conviction,  appeared  to  them  of 


14 

no  value.  In  their  hearts  they  never  lost  faith  that  freedom 
alone  could  cure  the  errors  of  freedom,  and  a  riper  knowledge 
the  error  of  what  is  unripe."  This  indeed  is  but  another  formula 
for  the  earlier  and  more  familiar  one  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

This,  in  my  opinion,  constitutes  the  true  distinction    between 
/  Collegiate    and   University  education.     The   former  is  training, 
N<  the  latter  emancipation  and  liberty.     It  is  the  difference  between 
the  hour  of_drill_a,ri(l  the  day  of  battle.  The  professor  in  his  Colle- 
giate   capacity    magisterially    marks    defects,    measures    untried 
powers  by  accuracy  in  details,  and  plays  the  fugleman  to  his  re- 
cruits. In  the  University,  as  on  the  eve  of  combat,  he  no  more  says : 
"Dress  a  little  to  the  right.     Eyes  right.     Front."     He  looks  to 
achievement   only.      He  cries  out,   "Forward ;   come  with   rne. 
Fight,  conquer." 

Real  mastery  at  the  University,  on  this  stricken  field  of  free 
thought,  means  mastery  in  life.  The  victor  here,  who  goes  forth 
in  the  full  fruition  of  his  powers,  cannot  fail.  He  is  already  free 
in  thought  and  soul,  and  his  further  business  is  to  gather  the 
spoils  of  his  victory  for  the  service  of  humanity ;  and  so  no 
longer  the  slave  of  self  and  circumstance,  he  is  superior  to  fortune 
and  the  master  of  his  own  destiny. 

I  have  thus  at  some  length  given  my  view  of  the  unity  of  edu- 
cation and  the  consecutiveness  of  its  parts.  I  have  attempted  to 
define  strongly  the  distinction  between  Academic  (or,  so  called, 
collegiate)  education  and  University  education.  But  in  these 
matters  we  should  not  be  governed  by  names.  Any  cross-roads 
seminary  may  be  baptized  University,  and  strut  like  an  old- 
fashioned  militia  general,  with  epaulettes  and  plumes,  the  pea- 
cock of  the  parade.  But  such  are  valued  at  their  real  worth. 
Not  for  them  the  storm  and  stress  of  Armageddon,  but  to  others, 
the  Lees  and  Stonewalls  of  the  strife.  On  the  other  hand  there  are 
Colleges,  let  us  say,  Yale  College,  Columbia  College,  New  York, 
South  Carolina  College,  which,  living  in  the  upper  air  of  correct 
scholarship  and  liberal  thought,  do  the  joint  work  of  College  and 
University,  and  yet  feel  an  honest  pride  in  adhering  to  the  tradi- 
tional name  of  College,  which  marks  their  ancient  estate. 

In   such  institutions,  in   all  higher  institutions,  I  hope  to  see 


15 


Collegiate  and  University  work  differentiated,  not  by  the  abandon- 
ment of  either,  but  by  full  recognition  of  the  radical  philosophi- 
cal distinction  between  the  two  functions  and  methods  as  succes- 
sive phases  and  parts  of  one  system.  Let  the  Collegian  be  taught 
as  such,  under  a  discipline  approved  by  the  experience  of  the 
.  and  in  courses  prescribed  by  a  Faculty  more  competent  than 
himself  to  judge  of  his  needs.  But  to  the  University  student 
give  that  freedom  of  election  which  it  behooves  a  free  man  to 
have. 

Of  this  freedom,  Helmholtz  says:  "Keep  it  and  hand  it  on  to 
coming  races  purified  and  ennobled  if  possible.  You  have  to 
maintain  it  by  each  in  his  place  taking  care  that  the  body  of 
German  students  is  worthy  of  the  confidence  which  has  hitherto 
accorded  such  a  measure  of  freedom.  But  freedom  necessarily 
implies  responsibility.  It  is  as  injurious  a  present  for  weak,  as 
it  is  valuable  for  strong  characters."  This  goes  to  the  very  root 
of  the  matter,  and  more  nearly  here  in  America  than  in  Ger- 
many. Constrain  the  young,  the  feeble,  the  inexperienced,  to 
follow  those  courses  of  study  which  wiser  heads  know  is  the  nor- 
mal and  best  method  for  their  development  ;  but  allow  the  ma- 
tured intellect  to  mark  out  its  own  career  for  higher  culture. 

If  education  has  been  correctly  defined,  and  the  University 
represents  its  highest  phase,  the  question  naturally  arises,  Where 
does  this  phase  commence?  In  a  highly  organized  society,  the 
whole  work  of  education  may  be  regularly  distributed  to  the 
Primary  School,  the  High  School,  the  College,  and  the  Uni- 
versity, with  the  aid  of  Professional,  Technical,  and  other  special 
schools.  But  in  America,  and  especially  in  the  South,  we  must 
do  what  we  can,  not  what  we  would.  The  University  is,  with- 
out exception,  obliged  to  perform  the  duties  of  the  College,  and 
generally  of  the  High  School  also.  There  can  be  no  objection 
to  this,  if  such  an  institution  grasp  the  whole  problem  in  its  en- 
tirety, and  yet  recognizes  the  essential  difference  between  the 
spirit  and  methods  of  its  lower  and  higher  departments.  A 
University  may  begin  where  its  circumstances  and  the  condition 
of  its  people  require,  so  only  that  it  shall  not  close  its  work 
without  offering  to  its  students  those  chartered  rights  to  liberal 


16 


knowledge,  that  emancipation  of  thought,  which  is  the  true  key- 
note of  Academic  freedom  and  University  life.  That  this  is  not 
the  idea  of  the  German  University,  I  admit.  That  idea  involves 
a  complete  severance  of  the  Gymnasium,  or  College,  from  the 
University.  But  forms  and  ideas  must  yield  to  actual  conditions. 
And,  much  as  it  would  shock  a  German  University  Professor  to 
tell  him  so,  I  am  sure  that  for  the  teacher  himself  it  is  a  higher 
discipline  to  be  able  and  compelled  to  teach  in  both  the  University 
arid  the  College  than  in  either  alone.  If  a  higher  discipline, 
then  a  higher  man  is  the  outcome;  and,  though  the  direct  results 
may  be  less  obvious,  the  indirect  evolution  of  all  concerned  should 
be  larger. 

The  discussion  of  ideals  is  a  pleasing  and  not  unprofitable  pas- 
time, but  it  is  not  my  purpose  here  to-day.  It  is  too  much  the 
fashion  of  educational  doctrinaires,  like  other  visionaries,  to  sup- 
pose that  the  world  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  were  created  for 
the  sake  of  evolving  a  perfect  University.  We  must  learn  that 
the  University,  like  other  social  institutions,  is  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people.  And  unless  it  is  created  and  carried  on  with  special 
reference  to  the  wants  and  improvement  of  a  particular  people 
or  class,  it  is  defective  and  abnormal.  In  a  word,  I  take  it  that 
the  South  Carolina  College  is  intended,  and  should  be  adminis- 
tered, for  the  benefit  of  the  white  youth  of  South  Carolina.  It 
adapts  itself  to  the  conditions  in  which  it  is  placed.  The  wel- 
fare of  its  own,  not  of  German  or  French  students,  not  of -Cali- 
fornia, Ohio,  or  even  Georgia  students,  is  its  business. 

It  is  lack  of  wisdom  to  disregard  the  needs  and  wishes,  or  even 
the  prejudices  of  people,  in  offering  them  what  we  choose  to  think 
is  good.  It  is  not  good  for  them^  if  they  will  in  nowise  accept 
it.  The  ideal  University,  then,  according  to  my  view,  is  the  one 
most  exactly  adapted  to  the  condition  of  the  people  whom  it  is 
designed  to  educate. 

Having  considered  whom  the  University  should  teach,  and 
how  they  should  be  taught,  the  practical  question  meets  us  quite 
squarely,  What  shall  it  teach?  I  have  already  said  it  must  fur- 
nish the  highest  education.  I  add,  it  must  likewise  provide  the 
broadest  possible.  The  whole  area  of  human  knowledge  is  its 


IT 

field.  In  all  its  expanse,  there  is  no  department  which  has  not 
some  value  both  for  information  and  training.  If  we  consider 
that  the  best  education  is  that  which  best  develops  all  the  facul- 
ties of  man,  we  may  well  believe  that  no  region  or  tract  of  the 
entire  sphere  of  knowledge  should  be  left  unvisited  by  the  in- 
quiring, growing  mind.  The  intellectual  life  is  like  the  upper 
levels  of  some  great  mountain  peak,  with  its  bracing  air,  its 
rocky  shadows,  and  its  broad  horizon.  We  may  reach  it  by  the 
beaten  path,  with  guides  and  ropes  and  Alpine  staff,  or  we  may 
climb  thither  by  devious  and  perilous  ways,  known  only  to  the 
mountain  goat  and  his  hunter. 

The  recommendation  of  the  University,  as  the  best  approach 
to  these  higher  levels,  is  not  that  its  ascent  is  the  most  strenuous 
and  disciplinary,  but  that  it  is  the  surest,  safest,  speediest  road 
to  the  point  of  destination. 

Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton,  in  his  delightful  book,  *'The  Intel- 
lectual Life,"  says:  "The  needs  of  the  intellect  areas  various  as 
the  intellects  themselves  are  various ;  and  if  a  man  has  got  high 
mental  culture  during  his  passage  through  life,  it  is  of  little  con- 
sequence where  he  acquired  it,  or  how.  The  school  of  the  intel- 
lectual man  is  the  place  where  he  happens  to  be,  and  his  teachers 
are  the  people,  books,  animals,  plants,  stones,  and  earth  around 
him." 

Hamerton  adds  some  words  of  such  exceeding  truth  and  beauty, 
and  which  so  nearly  touch  the  vital  point  of  higher  education, 
that  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  them:  uThe  essence  of  intellectual 
living  does  not  reside  in  extent  of  science  or  in  perfection  of  ex- 
pression, but  in  a  constant  preference  for  "higher  thoughts  over 
lower  thoughts,  and  this  preference  may.  be  the  habit  of  a  mind 
which  has  not  any  very  considerable  amount  of  information. 
This  may  be  very  easily  demonstrated  by  a  reference  to  men  who 
lived  intellectually  in  ages  when  science  had  scarcely  begun  to 
exist,  and  when  there  was  but  little  literature  that  could  be  of 
use  as  an  aid  to  culture."  And  he  cites  as  instances,  Solomon, 
Aristotle,  and  Plato. 

Again,  he  says:   "It   is  not  erudition  that  makes  the  intellec- 
tual man,  but  a  sort  of  virtue  which  delights  in  vigorous  and 
2 


18 


beautiful  thinking,  just  as  moral  virtue  delights  in  vigorous  and 
beautiful  conduct.  Intellectual  living  is  not  so  much  an  accom- 
plishment as  a  state  or  condition  of  the  mind  in  which  it  seeks 
earnestly  for  the  highest  and  purest  truth.  It  is  the  continual 
exercise  of  a  firmly  noble  choice  between  the  larger  truth  and 
the  lesser,  between  that  which  is  perfectly  just  and  that  which 
falls  a  little  short  of  justice.  The  ideal  life  would  be  to  choose 
thus  firmly  and  delicately  always,  yet  if  we  often  blunder  and 
fail  for  want  of  perfect  wisdom  and  clear  light,  have  we  not  the 
inward  assurance  that  our  aspiration  has  not  been  all  in  vain, 
that  it  has  brought  us  a  little  nearer  to  the  Supreme  Intellect, 
whose  effulgence  drawTs  us  whilst  it  dazzles?" 

In  the  entire  realm  of  knowledge,  and  of  the  studies  which 
confer  it,  we  must  select  those  which  will  best  train  all  the  facul- 
ties that  enable  us  to  attain  this  exalted  state  or  condition  of  a 
noble  intellectual  life.  All  the  faculties  are  to  be  trained,  but  all 
of  knowledge  is  not  necessary  or  desirable  to  effect  this  training. 
The  intellectual  faculties  are  to  be  disciplined  for  action,  not 
loaded  as  pack-horses  of  learning.  They  are  to  be  educated  as 
the  ministers  of  a  self-controlled  but  sovereign  will.  Each  should 
receive  the  education  suited  to  its  office  in  the  court  of  this  mas- 
ter. It  is  not  for  the  hand' to  perform  the  work  of  the  eye,  or 
the  foot  the  work  of  the  stomach.  It  is  not  the  part  of  the 
reason  to  supply  the  place  of  the  memory,  or  the  imagination  to 
supersede  observation.  Each  must  do  its  own  proper  duty  and 
receive  its  specific  education.  Each  faculty  serves  with  ease  in 
its  own  appointed  realm,  and  with  toil  and  constraint  elsewhere. 
Hence,  in  each  grand  division  of  the  complete  sphere  of  knowl- 
edge, we  should  select  those  special  departments  in  which  the 
dominant  mental  faculties  will  find  their  best  education.  The 
University,  then,  should  teach  throughout  the  whole  area  of 
human  knowledge ;  but,  in  view  of  the  limitations  of  time,  human 
infirmity,  and  the  object  to  be  attained,  not  all  of  it. 

Ezra  Cornell  proclaimed  the  purpose  of  his  University  thus : 
"I  would,"  said  he,  "found  an  institution  where  any  person  can 
find  instruction  in  any  study."  The  aspiration  was  grand,  but 
impossible.  It  came  from,  the  heart,  not  the  head.  It  was  the 


19 

utterance  of  a  philanthropist,  not  a  philosopher;  of  one  who 
knew  not  of  the  impassable  barriers,  the  unattainable  heights,  the 
unsounded  depths,  the  shoreless  seas,  of  knowledge.  We  know, 

0  so  little,  of  the  All-Knowledge,  which  like  space,  or  infinity 
rather,  pervades  the  universe.     A  raj  of  light  reaches  us  from  a 
distant  star.     That   is  all  we  are  permitted  to  know  of  a  toiling 
sun  with  its  planetary  system,  each  orb  with  its  freight  of  ma- 
terial or  metaphysical  facts,  and  its  possible  but  unrevealed  circle 
of  truth.     Attainable  knowledge,  compared  to  the  absolute  truth, 
in  any  matter,  is  as  an  atom  to  infinity.     We  mus.t  be  content 
with  knowledge  of  a  few  things.     These  should  be  selected  wisely 
for  the  general  training  of  all  our  faculties  and  the  special  train- 
ing of  those  which  one  will  have  to  employ  chiefly  in  what  con- 
cerns him  most  nearly. 

A  man  should  be  first,  and  most  of  all,  a  man ;  and  hence,  as 

1  have  said,  all  his  faculties  must  be  educated.     But  to  be  a  man 
in  the  highest  sense,  he  must  be  a  thinker  and  a  worker  in  some 
special  thing.     Every  true  man  has  his  appointed  place  to  fill  in 
the  grand  scheme  of  providence.     Be  it  little  or  great,  he  should 
try  to  fill  it  adequately.     But  to  do  this  aright,  not  only  must  all 
his  faculties  be  developed,   but  some  of  them  must  be  specially 
developed.      Hence  all  the  faculties  are  not  to  be  equally  educa- 
ted.    In  their  education  we  must  look  to  the  end  in  view.     The 
education  of  each  man  must  be  adapted,  as  far  as  possible,  to  his 
proposed  work  in  life.     It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  no  one  curri- 
culum will   suit  every  mind.     There  is  no  panacea  in  education. 
It  has  been  a  plain  instinct  of  common  sense  which  has  kept  the 
youth  intended  for  a  business  career,  or  for  a  life  devoted  to  me- 
chanical invention,  away  from  the  walls  of  the  University.     The 
learned  pundits  argued  with  him  in  vain  that   what  was  the  best 
line  of  study  to  make  a  minister  or  lawyer  was  the  best  to  make  a 
merchant  or  mechanic.   He  knew  better.  All  that  is  left  us  is  to  de- 
cide whether  we  will  continue  to  restrict  our  work  of  education  to 
those  persons  preparing  for   the  professions,   by   courtesy  called 
learned,  or  extend  it  to  others,   requiring  full  as   much    mental 
acumen,  cultured  imagination,  and  accuracy  of  intellectual  method. 
For  my  own  part,  I  say  throw  open  the  doors  of  the  University, 


and  provide  the  exact  courses  of  study  required  for  those  who 
seek  to  <3arry  culture  into  other  branches  of  intellectual  activity. 
I  can  very  well  believe  that  an  exclusive  pursuit  of  the  scholastic 
philosophy,  or  a  strict  regimen  of  philology,  might  unfit  a  mind 
to  build  a  model  bridge,  or  run  a  bank,  or  administer  a  vast  and 
complicated  railroad  system.  The  men  who  do  these  things  best 
distrust  the  University,  and  not  unwisely.  But  it  is  because  the 
University  regards  them  as  Gentiles,  or,  at  best,  as  proselytes 
of  the  gate.  With  proper  methods  for  the  education  of  such  men 
we  should  see  not  less  ability  and  a  far  higher  morale  in  adminis- 
tration and  business.  Wherever  intellectual  life  performs  its 
work,  whether  in  absorbed  contemplation  of  the  omphalos, 
striving  for  Nirvana,  or  in  the  strenuous  energies  of  industrial 
enterprise,  the  University  should  find  a  method  of  preparation 
adapted  to  the  case. 

A  year  or  more  ago  !I  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Administra- 
tors of  the  Tulane  Educational  Fund  a  plan  of  University  or- 
ganization, which,  in  the  main,  met  their  approval,  and  in  which 
I  practically  embodied  these  opinions. 

From  this  report,  at  the  risk  of  repeating  myself  a  little  in 
thought,  I  make  the  following  extract  as  expressing  succinctly 
my  views : 

"Mathematics  and  the  humanities  are  excellent  educational 
tools,  well  tested  in  disciplinary  value,  and  finished  and  improved 
by  the  experience  of  ages.  No  better  course  of  studies  has  been,  or 
probably  will  be  devised  as  a  basis  for  education  in  the  learned  pro- 
fessions and  the  highest  scientific  pursuits.  But  there  are  func- 
tions of  the  human  mind  not  reached  by  these  studies,  and  there 
are  other  branches  which  possess  disciplinary  value  and  informing 
power.  While  we  should  not  yield  to  idle  clamor  and  reject  the 
former,  neither  can  we  aiford  to  neglect  those  sciences  which  train 
the  powers  of  observation  and  open  to  the  inquirer  the  whole 
realm  of  nature. 

"The  true  medium  between  narrowness  and  license  is  to  avail 
ourselves  of  all  that  modern  discussion  has  settled  on  these 
points.  I  feel  that  I  am  strictly  in  accord  with  the  best  lines  of 
modern  thought  and  methods  in  education  when  I  recommend  for 


21 

the  instruction  in  the  College,  parallel  and  equivalent  courses  of 
study,  with  prescribed  branches,  which  have  been  found  advisable 

by  experience  elsewhere." 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

"When  I  said  that  our  work  embraced  the  whole  ground  of 
the  higher  education,  I  had  in  mind  not  only  the  extent  to  which 
any  particular  student  might  carry  his  education  in  completing 
it,  but  the  entire  breadth  of  the  field  of  human  knowledge.  No 
man  can  survey  the  realm  of  human  knowledge,  and  comprehend 
the  whole.  No  man  can  know  it  all.  No  man  need  know  it  all. 
The  education  of  any  man  is  an  advance  along  certain  lines  of 
thought  in  certain  areas  of  this  wide  domain.  The  courses  of 
study  afforded  by  institutions  are  but  routes  of  travel,  estab- 
lished according  to  their  means  and  facilities,  as  railroad  lines  are 
run  from  point  to  point.  Thus  it  is  easy  to  see  how  a  well  con- 
ceived system  would  aid  the  wayfarer  on  the  road  to  knowledge. 

*'For  all  practical  purposes  the  realm  of  human  knowledge  may 
be  distributed  into  the  four  following  provinces : 

"'1.  Philosophy  and  Letters. 

••2.   Philology. 

'"3.  Mathematics. 

"4.  Natural  Science 

"The  branches  included  in  each  of  these  divisions  exercise  and 
train  a  different  set  of  intellectual  faculties,  the  development  of 
all  of  which  is  requisite  for  that  robust  strength  of  mind  and 
character,  that  masterful  energy  of  intellect  and  soul,  which  may 
be  called  scientific  culture.  We  cannot  obtain  a  liberal  educa- 
tion even,  without  some  gymnastic  practice  and  instruction  in 
each  of  these  great  departments.  Therefore,  in  any  and  every 
course  of  instruction,  each  should  be  represented. 

••\Ve  should  carry  on  in  our  College  equivalent  courses  of  in- 
struction, eich  covering  seven  years,  and  all  leading  to  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts." 

I  beg  leave  to  call  attention  in  the  foregoing  to  the  recommen- 
dation of  "parallel  and  equivalent  courses  of  study,  with  pre- 
scribed branches,"  Dearth  covering  seven  years,  and  all  leading  to 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts"  I  also  recommended  that  the 


22 


degree  of  Master  of  Arts  should  be  granted  for  two  years  more, 
and  Doctor  of  Philosophy  for  three  years,  of  successful  Univer- 
sity study.  -I  find  that  somewhat  similar  views  are  expressed  by 
President  Eliot  of  Harvard  University,  in  a  recent  able  article 
in  the  June  number  of  the  Century  Magazine,  entitled  "What  is 
a  Liberal  Education  ?"  The  article  opens  as  follows  : 

"The  general  growth  of  knowledge  and  the  rise  of  new  litera- 
tures, arts,  and  sciences  during  the  past  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  have  made  it  necessary  to  define  anew  liberal  education, 
and  hence  to  enlarge  the  signification  of  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts,  which  is  the  customary  evidence  of  a  liberal  education. 
Already  the  meaning  of  this  ancient  degree  has  quietly  under- 
gone many  serious  modifications ;  it  ought  now  to  be  fundamen- 
tally and  openly  changed. 

"The  course  of  study  which  terminates  in  the  degree  of  Bache- 
lor of  Arts  ordinarily  covers  from  seven  to  ten  years,  of  which 
four  are  spent  in  College  and  three  to  six  at  school ;  and  this 
long  course  is,  for  my  present  purpose,  to  be  considered  as  a 
whole.  I  wish  to  demonstrate,  first,  that  the  number  of  school 
and  College  studies  admissible  with  equal  weight  or  rank  for  this 
highly  valued  degree  needs  to  be  much  enlarged  ;  secondly,  that 
among  admissible  subjects  a  considerable  range  of  choice  should 
be  allowed  from  an  earlier  age  than  that  at  which  choice  is  now 
generally  permitted  ;  and,  thirdly,  that  the  existing  order  of 
studies  should  be  changed  in  important  respects.  The  phrase, 
'studies  admissible  with  equal  weight  of  rank,'  requires  some 
explanation.  I  use  it  to  describe  subjects  which  are  taught  with 
equal  care  and  completeness,  and  are  supported  by  the  same  pre- 
scriptions, and  which  win  for  their  respective  adherents  equal  ad- 
mission to  academic  competitions,  distinctions,  and  rewards,  and 
equal  access  to  the  traditional  goal  of  a  liberal  education,  the  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  Coordinate  studies  must  be  on  an 
equal  footing  in  all  respects  ;  of  two  studies,  if  one  is  required 
and  the  other  elective,  if  one  is  taught  elaborately  and  fully,  and 
the  other  only  in  its  elements,  if  honors  and  scholarships  may  be 
obtained  through  one  and  not  through  the  other,  if  one  may  be 
counted  toward  the  valuable  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  and  the 


23 

other  onlv  toward  the  very  inferior  degree  of  bachelor  of  science 
or  bachelor  of  philosophy,  the  two  studies  are  not  coordinate — 
they  have  not  the  same  academic  weight  or  rank." 

I  am  happy  to  have  the  sanction  of  a  name  so  distinguished  as 
President  Eliot's  to  views  which  I  have  elaborated,  not  as  tenta- 
tive merely,  but  for  practical  application  in  the  business  of  Uni- 
versity organization. 

In  deciding ,  what  the  equivalent  courses  of  instruction  should 
be,  reference  must  be  had  to  the  principles  just  laid  down  by 
me  in  the  quotation  from  my  report.  Around  the  opposing 
poles  of  knowledge,  we  find  one  hemisphere  allotted  to  the  realm 
of  nature — the  physical  world;  the  other  to  the  realm  of 
thought — the  metaphysical  world.  Lying  between  and  within 
both  is  the  realm  of  man.  Then,  enveloping  the  entire  sphere 
of  thought  and  knowledge,  as  the  atmosphere  does  the  globe,  we 
find  language,  the  expression  and  essential  medium  of  thought 
and  knowledge,  without  which  it  must  cease  to  exist. 

Words  are  but  sounds,  independent  of  the  thought  they  em- 
body ;  but  as  the  manifestation  of  idea,  they  are  as  essential  as 
the  corporeal  frame  to  the  phenomena  of  the  indwelling  spirit. 
As  signs  defining  variation  in  thought,  we  cannot  disregard  or 
neglect  the  subtlest  shades  of  language.  Those  who  contemn  its 
study,  do  not  understand  its  uses.  Language  must  necessarily 
embrace  a  large  share  in  the  business  of  education.  This  applies 
primarily  to  our  mother  tongue,  and  the  study  of  other  languages 
must  be  chiefly  with  a  view  to  the  complete  mastery  of  our  own. 
But  mastery  of  this  medium  of  thought  almost  includes  mastery 
of  the  thought  itself;  and  hence  excellence  in  the  study  of  lan- 
guage will  imply  achievement  in  other  departments  of  knowledge. 

Man   defines  himself  in  time  and  space.     Here  we  have  the 
beginning  of  arithmetic  and  geometry.     When  he  has  settled  all 
the  abstract   relations  of  number  and  form   in  the  metaphysical 
as  well  as  in  the  physical  world,  he  has  a  complete  body  of  mathe- 
matics.    But,  from  the  infantile  grasp   of  number  to  a  Newton   T7 
or  a  La  Place,   what    a    distance — the    span    'twixt    earth    and      1 
heaven !     The  foot  of  the  ladder  rests  on  the  hard  facts  of  con- 
sciousness, but  on  its  topmost  rounds  we  see  the  angels  ascending 
and  descending. 


24 


Nature  opens  another  realm  to  human  inquiry.  The  explora- 
tion and  mapping  out  of  this  vast  tract  constitutes  natural  science. 
But,  in  its  application,  it  may  contain  the  germ,  the  stalk,  the 
blade,  or  the  ripened  ear  of  a  practical  fact  which  shall  modify 
civilization.  It  may  begia  and  end  in  scientific  symbolism — in  a 
chemical  or  physical  formula;  or  it  may  lead  to  a  locomotive,  a 
telephone,  or  an  electric  light. 

But  man  is  to  himself  the  greatest  fact  in  the  universe.  What 
he  has  thought  about  himself,  his  philosophies ;  what  he  has  done, 
his  history ;  what  he  has  felt  and  uttered,  his  literature ;  these 
great  provinces  of  expressed  thought  with  their  hundredfold  sub- 
division of  sciences  and  studies,  must  form  an  enduring  source  of 
inquiry  to  him,  and  must  enter  largely  into  any  scheme  of  liberal 
education. 

It  has  seemed  to  me,  therefore,  that  the  following  branches 
should  be  included  in  every  one  of  the  courses  recommended  by 
me,  in  order  that  each  of  the  four  great  realms  of  knowledge 
should  have  its  due  representation : 

1.  English  (including  grammar,  rhetoric,  literature,  and  elocu- 
tion). 

2.  Mathematics. 

3.  Penmanship. 

4.  Drawing. 

5.  Geography. 

6.  Natural  Science. 

7.  Physiology  and  Hygiene. 

8.  History. 

9.  Ethics. 

10.  Political  Science. 

The  following  studies  should  occupy  more  or  less  space  in  some 
one  or  another  of  the  courses,  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  special 
activities : 

1.  Latin. 

2.  Greek. 

3.  French. 

4.  German. 

5.  Spanish. 


6.  Chemistry. 

7.  Physics. 

8.  Mechanics. 

9.  Animal  and  Vegetable   Anatomy   and   Physiology — i.  e., 
Biology. 

10.  Metaphysics  and  Logic. 

These  are  the  different  factors  in  the  problem  of  education ; 
but  how  difficult  and  delicate  a  problem  it  is.  Note,  that  all  the 
faculties  are  to  be  trained  and  developed,  but  not  equally  so. 
The  development  should  be  adjusted  to  the  purpose  for  which  the 
faculties  will  be  employed.  Hence,  in  each  of  the  courses  set 
before  the  student,  there  must  be  a  proper  arrangement  of  studies, 
carefully  and  wisely  ordered  to  meet  his  needs.  Hamerton  draws 
an  ingenious  analogy  between  education  and  cookery.  He  shows 
how  a  delicious  dish  became  a  nauseous  mess  by  a  sprig  too  much 
of  parsley,  and  he  adds  this  sound  reflection : 

"And  so  it  is,  I  thought,  with  the  different  ingredients  of 
knowledge  which  are  so  eagerly  and  indiscriminately  recom- 
mended. We  are  told  that  we  ought  to  learn  this  thing  and  that, 
as  if  every  new  ingredient  did  not  affect  the  whole  flavor  of  the 
mind.  There  is  a  sort  of  intellectual  chemistry  which  is  quite 
as  marvellous  ^s  material  chemistry,  and  a  thousand  times  more 
difficult  to  observe.  One  general  truth  may,  however,  be  relied 
upon  as  surely  and  permanently  our  own.  It  is  true  that  every- 
thing we  learn  affects  the  whole  character  of  the  mind." 

"Consider  how  incalculably  important  becomes  the  question  of 
proportion  in  our  knowledge,  and  how  that  which  we  are  is  de- 
pendent as  much  upon  our  ignorance  as  our  science.  What  we 
call  ignorance  is  only  a  smaller  proportion — what  we  call  science 
only  a  larger.  The  larger  quantity  is  recommended  as  an  un- 
questionable good,  but  the  goodness  of  it  is  dependent  entirely 
on  the  mental  product  that  we  want." 

"All  I  venture  to  insist  on  is  that  we  cannot  learn  any  new 
thing  without  changing  our  whole  intellectual  composition  as  a 
chemical  compound  is  changed  by  another  ingredient ;  that  the 
mere  addition  of  knowledge  may  be  good  for  us  or  bad  for  us ; 
and  that  whether  it  will  be  good  or  bad  is  usually  a  more  obscure 


26 


problem  than  the  enthusiasm  of  educators  will  allow.  That  de- 
pends entirely  on  the  work  we  have  to  do." 

I  regard  these  as  wise  words.  Education  is  a  work  of  art, 
with  a  definite  end  in  view.  If  the  product  at  which  we  aim  is 
a  man  harmoniously  developed  and  effective  in  a  given  calling, 
we  must  work  toward  this  end  with  a  given  plan.  Any  other 
view  is  to  place  education — the  science  of  sciences — among  handi- 
crafts or  superstitions;  to  work  by  rule  of  thumb  according  to  tra- 
dition, or  to  relegate  it  to  the  sphere  of  pseudo-science,  along  with 
alchemy  and  astrology.  A  choice  must  be  made  among  studies 
with  strict  reference  to  the  chosen  pursuit  in  life,  and  this  object 
should  be  kept  steadily  in  view  by  regard  to  a  due  proportion  in 
the  subjects  taught. 

But  I  have  certainly  said  enough  to  indicate  how  urgent  I  re- 
gard the  need  to  be  for  our  Universities  to  take  in  hand  the  mat- 
ter of  what,  and  how  much,  shall  be  studied,  and  when,  as  well 
as  how,  it  shall  be  studied.  Our  function  is  to  take  our  commu- 
nities as  we  find  them,  and  to  educate  them  toward  the  best,  by 
a  sound  application  of  philosophical  principles.  My  view  of 
what  is  the  best  way  to  effect  this  may  differ  widely  from  that  of 
many  others  of  equal  or  more  commanding  educational  experience 
and  position.  But  I  believe  I  am  right,  both  in  the  principles 
and  the  application  of  them  which  I  have  enunciated. 

It  is  not  necessary,  neither  is  it  desirable,  that  all  Universities 
should  work  on  the  same  plan,  pursue  exactly  the  same  methods, 
or  indeed,  except  in  the  largest  sense,  arrive  at  the  same  results. 
We  wish  growth,  not  a  mechanical  product,  as  the  outcome  of  our 
educational  efforts.  We  wish  to  send  forth  men,  all  aiming  at 
the  best,  but  each  with  the  marks  and  flavor  of  his  nationality, 
his  community,  his  individuality  even,  preserved  and  emphasized. 

I  feel,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  I  have  taken  a  liberty  with 
this  audience,  which  I  should  have  hesitated  in  attempting,  ex- 
cept in  a  community  at  once  cultivated  and  accustomed  to  exact 
modes  of  thinking.  I  have  occupied  your  attention  with  a  mat- 
ter somewhat  abstruse,  and,  though  of  the  profoundest  importance 
to  every  one  here,  hard  to  present  in  a  popular  or  engaging  form. 
You  must  pardon  me  if  I  have  presumed  somewhat  even  upon 


27 

the  well-known  courtesy  and  culture  of  a  South  Carolina  audience. 

I  feel  deeply  to-day  the  influence  of  the  scene  and  its  surround- 
ings ;  the  presence  in  which  I  stand,  and  the  unseen  presence  of 
the  mighty  shades  which  stand  about  us.  The  South  Carolina 
College  is  eighty  years  old.  The  babe  born  at  its  founding,  who 
may  yet  live,  totters,  at  four-score  years,  on  the  shore  of  the 
boundless  ocean.  His  days  may  have  been  spent  in  beneficence 
and  crowned  with  honor,  but,  now  that  the  song  of  the  grasshop- 
per has  become  a  burthen,  he  can  only  lament  the  brevity  and 
incompleteness  of  his  career.  His  labors  have  ended. 

But  how  is  it  with  this  College  ?  Your  existence  bears  a  close 
analogy  to  that  of  man ;  except  that,  born  from  the  brain,  like 
Pallas  Athene,  you  stepped  into  life,  girded,  armed,  panoplied, 
and  ready  for  dominion  of  the  mind,  and  for  life  and  rank  among 
the  immortals.  Cadmus  plucked  the  teeth  of  the  dragon  Igno- 
rance and  planted  them.  They  sprang  up  in  serried  ranks,  war- 
riors every  one — from  Alpha  to  Omega — armed  for  the  eternal 
strife  of  letters  against  the  hordes  of  night.  Here  they  have 
made  a  citadel,  an  Acropolis,  which,  though  sacked  by  barbarian 
hosts,  rises  again  in  its  splendor  and  strength.  Your  toils  have 
been  great,  your  achievements  great,  your  sufferings  great;  and 
in  them  all  you  have  evinced  the  courage,  the  fortitude,  and  the 
dignity  which  became  your  lineage  and  the  ancient  commonwealth 
whose  name  you  bear. 

You  have  wrought  great  things.  Statesman,  warrior,  sage, 
whoever  he  may  be,  will  his  deeds  done  in  the  flesh  equal  the 
achievements  of  this  majestic  institution?  Think  of  the  young 
minds  here  formed  to  virtue,  grounded  in  patriotism,  and  stirred 
to  the  consciousness  of  an  intellectual  life  and  its  strenuous  duties. 
Think  of  the  day  star  from  on  high  which  has  risen  upon  num- 
berless lives  within  these  walls.  Think  how  much  you  have  done 
in  the  past  to  put  to  flight  folly,  bigotry,  blindness  of  soul;  how 
much  to  unify  the  State,  to  dignify  it,  to  illustrate  it,  to  beautifv 
its  intellectual  belongings.  Think  of  the  master  minds  who  here 
have  sat  in  your  councils,  shedding  around  the  lustre  of  wisdom 
and  lofty  thought;  the  accomplished  Maxcy,  the  eloquent  Pres- 
ton, the  profound  Lieber,  the  colossal  Thornwell.  And  do  not 


28 


forget  him,  who  alike  influenced  and  influencing  in  the  splendid 
peerage  of  intellect  which  marked  a  happier  and  grander  epoch 
than  our  own,  stood  like  some  antique  statue,  severely  true  in 
every  line  to  the  grace  and  dignity  of  moral  and  intellectual  in- 
tegrity— the  perfection  of  logic,  the  type  of  public  and  private 
virtue.  0  Calhoun !  when  shall  another  come  like  thee,  to  set  a 
lesson  of  thinking  and  doing  to  this  degenerate  age? 

But  with  this  lofty  line  of  achievement,  do  I  find  this  institu- 
tion sinking  with  the  decrepitude  of  years  ?  There  are  scars  in 
front,  and  dint  of  sword  on  breast-plate  and  shield ;  but  your 
tread  and  port  bear  the  proud  seeming  of  the  warrior  goddess  of 
wisdom  to  whom  I  have  likened  you.  No  wrinkle  is  on  your 
brow,  no  sign  of  weakness  nor  of  age  in  all  your  stately  form. 
A  perennial  bloom  beams  on  your  crest,  and  undying  vigor  nerves 
your  frame;  so  that  "thy  youth  is  renewed  like  the  eagle's." 
May  your  work  go  on,  in  the  time  to  come,  increasing  in  useful- 
ness and  broadening  to  that  ideal  which  now  fills  you  with  energy 
and  hope. 


>AYLORD  BROS.  IM.  ! 

Syr.cu*.,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


14  DAY  USE 

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